WalandLibby

Do you know the quote from Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) by Jerome K. Jerome? - Fox Terriers are born with about four times as much original sin in them as other dogs. lol. Have always loved that. Because I don't own one anymore I haven't checked particularly, but I don't think there's a breed thread. Would have expected that there was.

I use quite a different approach to a dog feeling fearful. I think that ignoring fear does not show adequate respect or compassion for my dog and not supporting them when they feel fearful is abdicating part of my responsibility for them. If something makes my dog fearful I try to 1)reduce the level of the fear-inducing stimulus (usually by increasing the distance between us and it) and 2) getting my dog happy so that he can associate the stimulus with feeling good - the fact that your dog becomes able to eat treats and play is a good indication that you have moved far enough away from the scary thing. Sometimes it is valuable to increase the distance and then just let the dog look at the scary thing. Keeping them in the frightening situation increases the chances they might do something more intense in response to their fear (like barking or biting) and such responses are often repeated because they tend to be quite effective (at least they seem so to the dog). Rather than expecting fear phases or any other developmental stage to appear on the dot of any particular time, let Rosie tell you when they are happening. Each pup develops a little bit differently, so things don't happen at the same time for all of them, those times are really only averages. We have so little research to rely on about the development of pups in general, but older pups especially. About her lead-walking, focussing on rewarding good lead-walking with other things than just moving forward should help. Lots of drivey, energetic, happy pups find so many aspects of being out on lead rewarding that it is difficult to communicate to them what you are trying to reward them for. Having stronger rewards (food) that can be correctly timed will communicate with her much more effectively.

Lucky you, having a young SFT. My lovely girl died 2 yrs ago. She was also loved to chase the hose, but not to the point that she'd bite me, and I never bothered to try to stop her chasing the water. Actually I really enjoyed how typically Foxy a behaviour it was. But when I had to hose out pens at the RSPCA I came up with a strategy that probably isn't good for the hose if you have to keep doing it, but you shouldn't have to keep doing it, so I think it's fine. I hosed with one hand and held the hose a bit further down it's length with the other. As soon as the dog looked at the water or moved towards it, I bent the hose in my hand so that it kinked and stopped running (much faster than having to twist a nozzle to off - if you did it that way the dog would already have been rewarded by the time you stopped the water). Although there might be some kinds of nozzle that you can switch on and off instantly. I don't know how much of a history those dogs had of hose chasing, but it didn't take many goes before they seemed to decide that it wasn't worth trying to chase it. I would think that it would take several sessions of hosing for the dog (especially a Foxy - I don't think they learn from negative punishment especially effectively ;-) to learn that the water *always* goes off if you try to chase it. They might stop trying to do it in a session, but next time you hosed they'd probably try again. Actually if I was hosing near a dog that I didn't want to chase the hose, I'd always be ready to do this - any time they actually did get to chase it would set us way back.

For the training that you do at home, consider all the other things that he wants during the day. Going through doors is a biggy, the chance to greet returning family members, approach things of interest, the chance to return to his bed. I would be teaching him only that in order to get the things he wants, he needs to look at you, obviously at first for the briefest glance, but over time increasing that duration, and building the degree of engagement that he will give you. I would (if you use them) be discontinuing things that might cause of dog to avoid eye contact, like reprimands (I would also be looking closely at his behaviour to analyse the things that he doesn't like - some non-foody dogs are very fussy about the ways they do and don't like to be handled and interacted with, they are generally less forgiving than food-hounds). I would not worry about actually teaching him lead-walking behaviours - I think they are best left to develop naturally as a result of the dog being engaged with you - if he thinks that interacting with you is the best thing to do in this circumstance then he will be less likely to pull and be more responsive to where you are going.

About 2 yrs ago I was quoted about $1500 for each eye, and the opthalmologist did not plan to put in a replacement lens. However, my boy's cataracts are progressing very slowly and he seems to see well (targets easily on small things, for eg), so I haven't had it done yet. The aftercare is fairly intense, apparently.

This is from Susan Garrett... http://www.clickerdogs.com/createamotivatingtoy.htm Personally though I've just taught tug and toy play by reinforcing it with food and shaping more intense interaction with the toy over time.

Poor little Tease, that is the saddest thing I've heard in ages. Is that the prognosis the vet gave you? I'd definitely be talking to Brad about this.

He's the only one! He does go to Sydney pretty regularly, I believe.

I think that by doing something he finds difficult every day, he might actually sensitise to it, and become more nervous (and more likely to behave dangerously). Stress hormones remain in the body for quite a long time after a stressful experience, and cumulate with successive stressors, and they often make a dog more reactive. I think that talking with a vet behaviourist would be a good idea, so they can give you an idea of whether/how they feel it is safe to work on this.

As far as I know (this was true recently, and I don't think it's changed), there is only one Vet Cardiologist practising at the moment in Australia. He works mainly in SEQ, but goes south regularly too, and may be happy to talk to you about this over the phone (I'd ask your vet for a referral). I'm not an expert, but I think grade 3 is pretty significant. Just for more info, in post 6 of this thread Dr Kuntz lists some of the causes of murmurs in pups (is this dog you're thinking about a pup?).

We went to stay for 2 blocks of 5 days at a uni campus during a uni holiday, and most of us took our dogs. Dogs needed to be over 1yr, healthy, well-trained etc, but I still think it was a pretty awful experience for lots of them - flying, a bus trip, living in student accomodation, being in such a large group of other dogs, being crated etc. I still feel guilty that I took Wal, he was very stressed. And my need to concentrate on him distracted me a lot from learning what was being taught and from networking.

About Delta... I'm really glad I did the Delta course, but I'm really happy if they've stopped having dogs attending residentials.

Most of what my dog's been on has been off-label use, I thought that was pretty common for medications for animals (at least those with rarer conditions) whether you buy from a vet or not? I so agree - I think has a lot to do with how we feel about paying for general veterinary treatment too. If we were faced more often with the real costs of providing our own health care, I don't think we'd think as often that vet care is expensive.

I love the way Echo describes teaching the recall. Makes the point that it's not the tool that is most significant, it's the way you teach. The benefits of using a whistle include: it carries over more distance than voice, does not require the dog to be looking at you to be aware of it, and it is something new that they haven't yet learned is meaningless (as can sometimes happen with voice). A poor recall is usually just evidence that the dog doesn't not have a strong expectation that hearing the sound and being near you equals good things - better things than what they were doing in the first place. The only way to build that expectation is to make the sound and give your dog good things and then progressively teach it to work harder in order to get to you for those good things. I'd say - keep the level of reward high, if the quality of the response (once learned) deteriorates, it tells you that a higher level of reinforcement is needed (either that the association of sound+closeness to owner=reward is breaking down, or because what they're doing is more rewarding than what they expect if they come to you).

For drugs that they prescribe relatively small numbers of it's not surprising that a vet will have to charge a higher price. My dog has been on huge amounts of medication (at one point, more than 10 doses a day, fortunately we're down to 4 doses a day now) and I've found the specialist extremely happy to write scripts, in fact it was her who suggested that I buy what I can from the pharmacy. I have never found vets to act as though they don't realise that ppl often struggle to find the money for vet treatment, and to do what they can to reduce that burden. But maybe it does come down to finding a vet who you feel comfortable with, who respects you (and you respect them), and asking them about it when you're not happy with something.

CASI have a range of online courses. I have huge respect for James O'Heare who founded that college. I haven't started yet (saving) but can't wait to start my Dip. ADBS. http://www.casinstitute.com/

Can't wait to hear how you get on.

Perhaps you could teach your pup to expect the rewards to appear somewhere other than your hand? You can use either her normal bowl or some other thing that she will be able to see well against the floor, like a white ice-cream lid, set up right beside you as you train. Click or say your word, then show/let her sniff her the treat in your hand and before she tries to get it, use it to lure her to the bowl, drop it in and let her eat it there. Soon the sound of the marker will have her orienting/moving to the bowl, which is great, because then she's got no reason to be mouthing anyone's hands. When pup's bite at hands that contain treats, it's difficult not to reward them, because they'll usually get at least a taste, so I prefer to bypass the whole issue if I can. I love to think of small children learning to train dogs with rewards - children are often really punitive with dogs, but if they learn that they can get them to do things without being bossy, it's so much better, and much safer, imo.

Yes, I do use a clicker. Although when you're starting out, it adds another thing to coordinate, which is a challenge. Verbal markers such as a short word ('yes') are fine also, and you don't have an extra thing to hold, but I find them with new trainers and beginner dogs more inclined to disappear into background sounds.

Sure, they are definitely animal training jargon. Targeting is teaching the dog to put a piece of it's body in contact with something else, which you can then move in order to move it's body and get it into a different position. I'm guessing that in your puppy class you have been taught mainly using luring, where she's following a treat in your hand. That's fine, especially when you and your pup are first starting out, but it adds an extra step into the teaching where you need to fade that out. Nose-to-hand targeting looks pretty much like that, except that the dog learns stick my nose on mum/dad's hand and go with it as a behaviour. Here are a couple of articles about it - this first one about the differences between targeting and luring... http://www.clickertraining.com/node/301 And this one about actually teaching it (she's talking about using a target stick, but I'd recommend you start with your hand - offered in a 2 finger point with a 'look at this' kind of movement, and a verbal cue - I use 'here' - to help your dog distinguish it from general hand movements) ... http://www.clickertraining.com/node/289 Free shaping is something I don't use much, but it involves marking (say by using a clicker or verbal sound that = treat to indicate to the dog that that is the behaviour that is being rewarded) something the dog does by itself, without you prompting it or doing anything to get the behaviour. This will (hopefully) cause the dog to do the same thing again (dogs usually do need some practice to work out how the game works). When that is happening you can withhold the marker a little and get the dog to develop the behaviour more before you mark. Once dog and person are experienced this can happen very quickly and efficiently. However lots of dogs find it a bit overstimulating and stressful, you often get a lot of 'thrown' behaviours - where the dog keeps trying, outside of training sessions, to get you to reward it for things, or within training sessions where (due to confusion) it offers behaviours different from what you're trying to work on, and because it can be challenging to communicate exactly through this method, you tend to also get superstitious behaviours (more jargon - those are behaviours that the dog thinks are part of what you marked for, because they were doing them at the time they heard the marker (at the same time they were doing the behaviour you do want - they are never just doing one thing), but you don't think are part of the behaviour.)

Mary Ray teaches the dog to hold through the click which allows you to build duration pretty easily. The vid I saw of her talking about this was pretty old, so I'm not sure if she's developed it further, but she clicks while the dog holds (even if she knows that will be very brief), then when the (naive as yet) dog drops it, she just waits (I guess providing a Least Reinforcing Stimulus, although I don't think she's using that deliberately, I don't think there'd be any harm in helping the dog out by pointing at the dumbbell, cueing if you have a pick up cue as yet). When the dog picks it up she asks for it and then rewards. I have a really sensitive dog and him dropping the dumbbell used to scare him, hadn't thought about it hurting a person. I'd say work with something that falls quiet and soft.

The issues with training older dogs is not that they can't learn new stuff, but that they tend not to forget the older stuff (that you'd rather they did ;-) But with a commitment to developing your training skills and understanding of what causes your dog to act in ways you'd rather she didn't, you should be able to teach her loads, and I bet she'll teach you loads more. Personally, neither of my dogs started training as young dogs - my Foxy's 'real' training started when she was 4yrs (I think we attended one or two classes when she was much younger), my Koolie when he was nearly 6. And both have been just the most amazing dogs to train. I haven't always been worthy of them, but I hope I'm gradually rising to their level.

The sky's the limit - just make up stuff and see if you can teach it. Sometimes I just sit down with my dog and look around the room and decide, for eg, I'm going to teach him to put his feet on that thing, or pick that up in his mouth, or get on the chair or off the chair (you get the picture). I don't use much free shaping, most of what I teach him starts with targeting (actually this is probably the first thing that I would teach, if I were training Gerda). Doing as much as you and Gerda are up for will not only give her a chance to have a really great game with you, it will really allow you to develop your training skills. While understanding the theory of how training works is really important, it's not much use without lots of practice (training is a mechanical skill, as Bob Bailey says). And I think it's the best thing for the relationship between a dog and person to do lots of training together.

Is his skin sore? I thought CDA was usually a cosmetic concern, rather than something that directly affected welfare.

It's very much a personal thing how important this seems to each individual owner. I certainly don't think it's worth stressing about. But if it seems important to you then there's not much more that you can do than taking the pup to the area you want them to use and waiting until they go, then rewarding them. If he was leash-trained it would be a bit easier, but as it is you should be able to pick him up when he moves away and put him back there. I don't think that using vinegar has any repellant qualities for a dog, urineoff I've never used and don't know much about. Puppies wreck things, that's just how it is, and I'd suggest you get him some bedding for the time being that he can't do to much damage to. I think the pepper could be quite a risk to his health/welfare, water or no water.By saying that he isn't leash-trained do you mean that you haven't started on that yet, or that he resists the leash when you put it on him? If you put a different surface down in the pen (newspapers, pee mats if he's not likely to rip them up) hopefully you'll be able to stop him forming a surface preference for the deck surface). Keeping a record of when you feed him and when he goes to the toilet will hopefully allow you to work out his routine and see how it changes as he grows up. It will really help you to provide the chance for him to go to the toilet when he needs to. Metal leads can injure ppl and dogs, so they're pretty much out of favour atm, and about the collar - do you mean a check collar?